JAMMU, Nov 30: Weather was dry and cold in Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh during the last 24 hours as the Meteorological (MeT) office said on Wednesday that dry weather with hazy mornings is expected to continue.
“Dry weather with hazy mornings is expected in J&K and Ladakh during the next 24 hours. Due to clear night sky, minimum temperatures continue to remain below the freezing point in Ladakh and the Valley,” an official of the MeT department said.
Srinagar had minus 1.6, Pahalgam minus 3.4 and Gulmarg minus 1 degrees Celsius as the minimum temperature.
Drass in Ladakh region had minus 9.6, Kargil minus 10.7 and Leh minus 6.8 as the minimum temperature.
Jammu had 10, Katra 9.2, Batote 4.6, Banihal 1.2 and Bhaderwah 2.8 as the minimum temperature. (Agencies)

JAMMU: As a major step towards the empowerment of women in the UT the Administrative Council (AC) which met here under the chairmanship of the Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha, approved the HR policy for female Anganwadi Workers (AWWs) and Helpers working in the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) of J&K.
Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar, Advisor to the Lieutenant Governor, Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta, Chief Secretary, J&K attended the meeting.

The Administrative Council approved the proposal of comprehensive Human Resource Policy to govern the engagement, leave(s), promotion and other important aspects of this very vital work force of the department.
AWWs and AWHs shall be re-designated as Sanginis (AWWs) and Sahayikas (AWHs).

Jammu, November 30:

As the country witnessed a social media storm over the remarks of Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid on The Kashmir Files, Kashmiri Pandits reacted strongly saying a foreigner cannot understand the pain of a community “living as a refugee in their own country”.They protested his remarks and demanded an apology from Lapid.

International Film Festival of India (IFFI) jury chairperson Lapid, viewed as an anti-establishment filmmaker, had termed the movie “propaganda and vulgar” during the closing ceremony of the film festival in Goa on Monday.

“We, as a community, are surprised to listen this from a person who is himself a Jew, a community that was persecuted because of its identity. What Kashmiri Pandits witnessed in 1990s is unimaginable for a foreigner,” said Ranjan Jotshi, a leader of Kashmiri Pandit employees who fled the Valley after a spate of targeted killings earlier this year.

He further said, “While each and every scene in The Kashmir Files depicts the reality of the 1990s, the movie recounts only a small part of what the community had gone through during that period. The spate of killings, rape and abduction of Pandit women was far worse which the Israeli filmmaker cannot understand.”

Members of the Kashmiri Pandit community and their leaders are raising questions as to how a person of “dubious” credentials was invited for a prestigious film festival in the country.

Kashmiri Pandits started migrating to Jammu and elsewhere in the early 1990s following the outbreak of violence in Kashmir. While the records of the Union Home Ministry released in 2013 claim that 213 Kashmiri Pandits were killed during the insurgency, organisations of the community say the number is much higher.

Ajay Chrungoo, chairperson of the Panun Kashmir, an organisation demanding a separate homeland for Kashmiri Pandits within the Valley, said the remarks by Lapid had reopened the wounds of the community.

Rubon Saproo, a teacher who settled in Jammu after a spate of killings of minorities in the Valley, said what happened in Kashmir recently was just a trailer of what had happened in the 1990s.

By King RJ

Ganderbal, Nov 28: With an aim to provide technical support to Youths especially in Fisheries farming, Faculty of Fisheries SKUAST-Kashmir through Division of Fishery Engineering in collaboration with ICAR- CIFT (GoI) distributed technology inputs/equipments among Schedule Tribe youth to boost entrepreneurship through Fisheries.

The programme was conducted under the project entitled “Entrepreneurship Development among Scheduled Tribe Communities through Harvest and Post Harvest Management of Fishes” funded by ICAR-CIFT( Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Govt. of India). 

The Programme was presided over by Prof. (Dr.) Dil Mohammad Makhdoomi, Director Extension, SKUAST-K, and the other dignitaries present during the programme were Dr. George Ninan Director ICAR-CIFT (GoI), Prof. (Dr.) Farooz Ahmad Bhat, Dean Faculty of Fisheries SKUAST-K, Prof. (Dr.) Gohar Bilal Wani, Head Division of Fishery Engineering/ Nodal officer ICAR-CIFT, SKUAST-K, Dr Tariq Hussain, Head Division of PHT, SKUAST-K, Scientists from Faculty of Fisheries SKUAST-K and other National Institute.

Prof. Gohar Bilal Wani briefed progress of the project and the various events carried since one year.

Prof. Wani emphasized that fisheries has tremendous scope /potential in Kashmir to confront unemployment problem in state.

He enlightens the house that 240 Scheduled Tribe (ST) youth were trained under this project from last few months in fisheries. He further said the impact of training during few months has resulted in the formation of entrepreneurship groups of Scheduled Tribe who have taken fisheries business as their livelihood.

Dean, Faculty of Fisheries, Prof. (Dr.) Farooz Ahmad Bhat, formally welcomed the dignitaries present on the occasion through both offline and online.

Dean, Faculty of Fisheries congratulated Prof. Wani Head, Division of Fishery Engineering and Dr Tariq Hussain, Head Division of Post Harvest Technology (Fisheries) for making the targets under the said project successful.

He discussed in detail the various post Harvest and value addition avenues in fisheries sector which will of immense help in eradicating the poverty and in generating the livelihood among the youth especially from the backward classes of the community.

Prof. Dil Mohammad Makhdoomi, Director Extension, SKUAST-K, congratulated the Scientists of Faculty of Fisheries for conducting such entrepreneurship programmes which provided entrepreneurship and employment to the young qualified persons of Scheduled Tribe people. He highlighted the importance of value addition in fish and other products for enhancing the generation and more revenue through the Post Harvest.

Director Extension also discussed various schemes and start ups in which SKUAST-K can help in providing the platform in taking any Agriculture sectior as an entrepreneurship and business on large scale.

At the end of the programme equipments related to Post Harvest Fisheries like Smoking Kiln, Fish De-scaler, Fish carrying ice boxes, complete kitchen wares etc were distributed among the Scheduled Tribe beneficiaries by the Director Extension and Dean Fofy along with the Nodal officer ICAR-CIFT SKUAST-K and other organisers.

Programme ended with vote of thanks by Dr. Shabir Ahmad Dar, Assistant Professor, Division of Fishery Engineering and the whole programme was hosted by the Dr. Ashfaq Farooq Agha, Assistant Professor, Division of Fishery Engineering.